Chinese Opera

Eight members of a Chinese opera company who disappeared in San Francisco last week just days before they were scheduled to return home will not seek political asylum in the United States, Alan Chow, executive director of the Chinese American Arts Council in New York City, said. He said the performers from the Shanghai Kun Opera had not realized the implications of their actions and were frightened by newspaper publicity.

A 28-member opera company from Shanghai will give four performances, all of them geared toward a Western audience, at Pasadena City College on June 9, 10 and 11. The performances will be the first stop on the company's month-long tour, which also includes San Francisco and New York. "The main purpose is to introduce this style of Chinese opera to the U.S. audience," said T. Y. Wu, who for 23 years performed professionally in Taiwan and arranged for the opera company's visit to Los Angeles.

Even those who hold to the theory that music is a universal language have to admit that, to Western sensibilities, Chinese opera is pretty exotic stuff. It is a vivid, highly stylized theater that encompasses acrobatics, juggling, and martial arts as well as the usual music, drama, and dance. Under the sponsorship of San Diego Opera, the Peking Opera of Chongquing opens tonight at San Diego Civic Theatre and plays through Saturday.

Music with an odd and ancient sound resonated in the suburban living room where 10 Chinese-Americans had gathered for their Monday morning ritual. George Tsai, leader of the Chinese Opera Assn. of Senior Citizens, rhythmically bowed the horsehair strings of his ching-hu , a Chinese violin. In his stocking feet, as were the other visitors to his Monterey Park home, Tsai had draped a handkerchief over his knee to protect his pants from the rosin lubricating the instrument's two bowstrings.

October 11, 1987 | JENNIFER MERIN, Merin is a New York City free-lance writer .

When retailers from Stanley Road and other Hong Kong bargain districts close their doors for the night, they head for Temple Street to bargain-hunt for themselves. The stalls in this open-air night market are well stocked with ready-to-wear casual clothes, gadgets and small appliances for the home, electronic goods, toys and luggage. The prices can't be beat. Until recently, Temple Street was known only to Hong Kong citizens and regulars.

The Chinese Moon Festival being held Friday and Saturday nights at the Orange County Performing Arts Center is the latest part of a growing local trend in showcasing ethnic arts. The festival, highlighting traditional Chinese opera, dance and folk songs, is the first presentation at the Center by a single ethnic community group--in this case, the newly formed Pan Pacific Performing Arts Inc.

Chinese opera, with its repeated clanging of cymbals and gongs, is making its musicians deaf, the daily Health News reported Saturday. Only three of 77 musicians tested in the northeastern city of Changchun had normal hearing, with hearing losses greater among veteran musicians, said the report, also carried by the official New China News Agency. It said some music from traditional Chinese operas is even louder than Western rock 'n' roll.

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti took Chinese opera fans by storm Tuesday. Hundreds of cheering Chinese swarmed into the aisles waving hands and programs in the air as the rotund opera singer delivered arias and Italian folk songs before 2,700 people, in a recital also carried live on Peking radio. "I've never seen anything like it," said a British student as the concert ended after five encores. "Even at a rock concert here the response was nothing like this."

In a theater here, a group of Peking Opera stars took the stage and bravely sang their traditional, high-pitched arias against a backing of electric guitars, synthesizers and drums. The result, many members of the audiences felt, was less than successful. At the very least, hearing Peking Opera selections being performed to a pounding disco beat was a culturally jarring experience, a bit like hearing Joan Sutherland singing Mozart with a reggae band as back-up.

--Being the only American in a Chinese jail can have its advantages, Richard S. Ondrik said. The warden in the Harbin, China, jail made dumplings for him, and a trustee hauled hot water for his weekly bath. But despite the decent treatment, "a cage is a cage, no matter how golden," Ondrik said. Ondrik, convicted of accidentally setting a fatal fire in April in a Harbin hotel, was released on Thanksgiving Day after serving five months of an 18-month sentence.